BRACKNELL RFC boosted their South West Premier survival hopes with an impressive 34-12 at third-placed Maidenhead on Saturday.

Both sides showed strong defences early on and it took until the 27th minute for the hosts to score in the corner through Jaryd Robinson before Ed Keohane’s conversion drifted wide.

Bracknell hit back and a period of sustained pressure led to their first points with a successful penalty from fly-half Vic Hardwicke.

Just before half-time, a loose ball from a line-out was seized upon by Bracknell’s Ken Dowling who found scrum-half Ally Walton to score under the posts. Hardwicke added the extras to put his side 10-5 up at the interval.

Maidenhead had the wind at their backs during the second period, but they suffered an early setback when tight-head prop Andy Darlington was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle.

A further Hardwicke penalty extended Bracknell’s lead before a series of smart off-loads allowed Walton to break into space and send Chris Hala’ufia under the posts. Hardwicke knocked over the conversion to give Bracknell a 15-point lead, with quarter of an hour of the half gone.

The Lily Hill men inflicted more misery on the hosts when centre Ben Sanderson broke through to score under the Maidenhead uprights, Hardwicke again on target to make it 27-5 Hardwicke then scored Bracknell’s bonus-point try, with the conversion took his individual points tally to 19 and extended the visitors’ advantage to 34-5.

Hala’ufia blotted his copybook by being sin-binned for a high tackle, and Maidenhead picked up a consolation try through Sam Hallett, but it was far too little, too late. Bracknell remain 10th in the table on 59 points, nine clear of third-bottom Newbury Blues.

Bracknell are at home to seventh-placed Brixham this Saturday (3pm).